A few weeks ago, we listened to a radio broadcast produced by ABC Radio National in Australia whose topic was the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in young children. The segment begins with a send-up of the supposed American penchant for seeing psychiatric disorders everywhere. The listener hears a narrator intone: “You’ve heard about SARS, AIDS…

In our book, and in almost every newsletter we write, we talk constantly about the burdens that parents of children with bipolar disorder must shoulder and overcome, all the while attempting to make decisions with the clinicians who work in an area of medicine that is still in its infancy. But we’ve never composed a…

On October 22, The New York Times ran a front-page article about a 10-year-old girl named Haley, suffering with a probable bipolar disorder. Because Haley was extremely anxious and distractible, had obsessional thoughts and fears, exhibited rapid mood swings, was often aggressive, and was experiencing psychotic symptoms, her psychiatrist could not point to one, specific…

Each week, millions of viewers tune into the hit show, 24. They watch as federal agent Jack Bauer of the Counter Terrorist Unit battles threats to national security, barely escaping with his life. The season unfolds in real time: each show depicts one hour; each season, 24. Every so often, a split-screen panel updates the…

At a recent conference on pediatric bipolar disorder, the topic of the seasonal aspects of the illness came up and caused a flurry of nods from the parents in the audience. These parents were aware that, despite the extraordinarily rapid daily shifts in mood, their sons and daughters did indeed have a depressive slump that…

The year is fast drawing to a close and a new century is almost upon us. As the 1990s were declared the decade of the brain, we hope the first few years of the new millennium see increased understanding of and research into early-onset bipolar disorder. As you read this newsletter, our new book,The Bipolar…

One of the questions we asked on the initial survey for The Bipolar Child, concerned a craving for carbohydrates: did the child or adolescent crave starchy foods such as potatoes, breads, pastas, and macaroni and cheese? or sugary foods such as candy, cookies, and ice cream? We’ll never forget the follow-up phone interview we had…

Does this sound familiar? Yesterday morning it took an hour-and-a-half attempting to get him up. We kept shaking him, beseeching, threatening, beseeching anxiously…. We even called his cell phone thinking he might pick it up for a friend’s call. He simply growled, muttered something we would have preferred not to hear, and turned over and…

How many times have we all jotted down a list to take with us to the supermarket? Even a simple vertical column of ordinary household items requires more than we realize. We scan areas of the house and pull from memory different food stuffs or supplies that need to be replenished or replaced: refrigerator (need…

We all experience bouts of boredom in life, but children and adolescents with bipolar disorder seem particularly prone to them. It often seems difficult for these children to become engaged with projects, or to set goals, and though a parent can offer any number of choices of activities, the children can’t seem to invest in…

The primary purpose of a consultation is a comprehensive assessment of the past and current course of illness and detailed history of treatments that would enable the development of a more effective treatment plan.